Open less than a year, the Sports Museum of America is closing today.


There was plenty of pre-opening hype, but the Sports Museum of America never quite caught on with tourists or locals in New York. At least not enough of them apparently came through to keep the place open.

The Museum is closing today "until further notice" according to an outgoing message on the answering machine.

Located on Broadway, the Museum was home to the Heisman Trophy award presentation. The Museum had dropped its admission prices from $27 to as low as $10 in recent weeks, but according to reports in the city, the sports memorabilia inside will be very lonely starting this weekend.

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I never went to it, and I am practically in walking distance (maybe a subway would have been better).

We were right there and thought about going in until I saw the prices. I figured I'd rather spend that kind of coin on 2 better museums.

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How strange. After The Group announced a year or so ago that it (they?) was/were part of a private, exclusive, super, sneak preview, I figured this place was destined for greatness.

Success breeds success...

It was foolish to charge such a high admission especially considering how many kids would be attracted to the museum. After I learned how much they were charging they were so far off my radar that I didn't know they had started charging $10 even though I live nearby.

IMO, It wasn't the entry fee. Tourists expect to drop big $, it IS Manhattan.

We were down that end last year, it was eerily barren. I was curious about the Museum but, no way the missus would have gone in (unless there was a Red Sox exhibit and a cocktail lounge inside). Too bad the financial district "appears" too subtle and sleepy for tourists. I think the fun times and stunning views from the Seaport complex down there are numbered too.

Lower Manhattan has got a ton of classy architecture and a rich, gritty history ie, Five Points, the Great Bridge, Battery Park, Fulton St, old City Hall, the majestic Woolworth Bldg. etc etc. Seems most visitors stop at Canal. More public transit options to the F District would certainly help

Though I do love that M&M store , all these modern facades hide some fabulous old struc tures. Times Square, the Rock and mid-town in general, are superficial and plastic. But, give me the periphery any day. Nothing compares to a Bryant Park recharge, enjoying a hot coffee and Danish in the shadow of the American Radiator Bldg, the most beautiful skyscraper on the planet.

Most that visit NYC seek madness, mayhem and martinis. Sadly missing out on the greatest memories.

Steve I agree that the entry fee alone didn't sink the museum. Tourist tastes surely did have something to do with it. Perhaps a museum of international sports rather than just American sports may have fared better. But the entry fee absolutely kept people away. It kept me away and it kept many friends and their kids away. I live in the area and I don't even know of anyone who has been there and it's specifically because of the high admission price.

Bryant Park? You need to get to East New York, City Island, Washington Heights, etc. THAT's the periphery of New York : )

Steve, if by "the Rock" you mean Rockefeller Center, it's certainly not "plastic and superficial."

Radio City is a beautiful example of 1930s Art Deco architecture.

My nephew is a sports nut and if it had been reasonably priced we might have done it.

I agree that lower Manhattan is great. We stayed down there last time and had a blast with all of the colonial era sites. The Federal government has a pamphlet on doing an historical walk down there, which we did, and it was really interesting.

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As someone who visited it.....

I thought that it was geared well for kids. Lots of stuff that they could actually touch --- not just displays behind glass. Certain exhibits were particularly impressive - especially the Olympic section. But others were much less so. Right now it's a tough time for many, many businesses to succeed and I suppose an American Sports Museum is just not high enough on the priority list of enough people. In any event, I'm sad to see it close.

David, My error. Magnificent architecture on a massive scale and been there many times. I was speaking (well typing) in terms of the mid-town environs and the street riff-raff. NBC does a fine job maintaining the originality of this Gem. I would love such a place in my city! Pardon the snafu

With our favorite NYU student, Top of the Rock 2008

you look miles away from a surfboard....how do you cope in the winter? Coco beach is calling you!

A buddy and I were in New York last June for a couple of Yankees games (tickets purchased from Jamie B. through this forum) and we went into the museum while touring around the area. We didn't get past the store area in the lobby, though, because of the ticket price which I think was $26. It seemed steep to us and even though I'm sure we would have enjoyed it, we had way too many other things to blow our cash on...$8-$10 beers at the games, for instance.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but no surprise there. I think that I mentioned in the original thread about a year ago that I would be surprised to see it last a year. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to make a "for profit" museum work. That thing was basically the old MCI Sports Gallery (which lasted about 4 years), but in a higher rent district.

Scott

We were sad to learn that the Sports Museum had closed its doors.
It offered a wonderful selection of sports history, unique exhibits
and the opportunity for its visitors to participate in real time interactive exhibits.

Whilst we were contacted by the Museum to "loan" or donate some
of the rare baseball items from our collection, we chose not to.

We believe that the Museum had three problems-and a $26 admission
price was not one of them. Movies are either $13 or 14 a person in Manhattan
Any good restaurant is likely to be $60-75 a person.

There is still plenty of money in New York. New York has more households
with million plus incomes than the next three cities combined. There are great sports
fans here. We live in a town where the medium household income exceeds $125,000

Problems

1) Location- on Wall Street was away from Museum Row and from the
City's shopping district. There was little in the way of street traffic

2) They did not spend sufficient dollars on marketing and brand awareness
was low

3) They did not co-promote with sports teams, sporting goods retailers and companies
like Nike who could have driven thousands of visitors to the Museum

Success in The Big Applie is about buzz, marketing and location. We may have suffered
a few set backs due to Wall Street's problems- but New Yorkers are resilient and move on- and with the
right marketing approach and more convenient location there is little doubt the Museum could have succeeded.

I disagree with Bruce.

Guggenheim: $18 admission
MoMA: $20 admission
Met: $20 admission [suggested -- you can pay zero]
American Museum of Natural History: $15
Bsaeball Hall of Fame: $16.50

Those museums for all intents and purposes are:
larger
not-for-profit
more well-known
a couple standard deviations less expensive.


Sorry, Bruce -- the $26- is anomalously high for museums, in general, and in particular for New York museums. And that will forever kill the business model of a relatively-narrow focused museum with high costs competing in a culturally rich and diverse environment like NYC.

Marc, don't forget: the location sucked in comparison to the museums you mentioned.

Many of the non-profit museums that have been around for a while are also in not so great locations. The Cloisters (in upper Manhattan), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green, for example. They also generally have an admission much lower than $26 and it is also often "suggested" meaning you can get in for whatever you can afford. When I was an art student I used to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art all the time and sometimes paid as little as a nickel. Otherwise I would have gone broke. The Museum of the American Indian is actually free and it is not far from the Museum of American sports.

Below is a link to a great "cheap" museum in Chelsea.

http://www.fieldtrip.com/ny/22601616.htm

I was contacted by this sports museum when it was in the planning stages.

IMO - they wanted everything from everyone - and many gave it to them - but offered very little in return.

we chose to exhibit our collection in smaller museums who let us be part of the process.

In addition, we were never invited to the museum opening - nor did we hear much about it after the first month of announcements.

My thoughts are someone made some money and benefited from the project - but it was NOT sports fans.

In addition, the other museums mentioned are long established - this was a lemonade stand comparatively.

Goodbye and good ridance !

Museums like MOMA have endowments like universities have. Meaning, they have lots of money in the bank from wealthy donators, estates, funding, property, investments, etc.

I read that Harvard's endowment is larger than the sum of the endowments of every university in England, including Oxford and Cambridge.

The admission price was way too high.

I agree with Marc, marketing would not have solved the problems unless it was marketing to rich benefactors to support the museum.

But then again I do not attempt to make a living in the marketing industry.